The Spice Girls
(The following information was made as notes in my PDA and therefore are in shorthand rather than sentences)
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Links to other pages:
In March 1998, the Girls were interviewed on MTV. Click here for the transcript |
On 14th May 1997 at 0730 ET (00:30 am UK), the Spice Girls held a live chat session on AOL. See their transcripts below.
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the girls were originally called Touch
in Spain prior to Emma's birthday 21/1/97
to Toronto for whirlwind tour on 22/1/97 (temperature 26/1/97 = -18C)
in New York 27/1/97 for 3 day promotional tour (temperature -5C), day 1 interview with Time Magazine, day 2 promotional bus ride with local radio station plus 37 competition winners, day 3 planned to fly Union Jack from Empire State Building (Emma was sick (pukey) for part of this and Victoria had flu)
started USA promo tour after New York, first show in Miami at a County Fair watched by 2000 which didn't go down too well, then back to NY then on to Los Angeles on 1/2. Flew back 4/2 to appear on new mid-week lottery programme (not singing but talking of charity in their home towns. Wannabe at No 2 in US
to appear at NEC on 1 March
Wannabe became No 1 in US on 12/2/97 - first British No 1 with first single
13/2 - appeared at Alexander Palace and the unveiling of the new McClaran Mercedes Grand Prix car
14/2 - flew to New Orleans to perform at a production for US radio station Managers - due to return to UK on 16/2
15/2 - article in Express giving view that the girls are working too hard for their own good. Denied by the Virgin management.
appeared at Brit Awards on 24/2 where they sang the opening number and won 2 awards - best single (Wannabe) and best video (Say you'll be there)
appeared on Noel Edmund's 1/3 then at NEC live for concert
Mama/Who do you think you are released 3/3 as double A side single with all profits from it going to Comic Relief
went to No 1 in UK 8/3/97 - first group ever to have first 4 records go to no 1
8/3 appeared on Live and Kicking
9/3 appeared on Clive James and Emma appeared on Omnibus with her mum
week 10/3 Spice week on C4 Big Breakfast - Spice Girls on every day
20/3 Girls in LA making Pepsi advert then onto Florida to continue tour
26/3 awarded Capital Best Group award
28/3 in Cologne for live appearance on MTV
30/3 appeared on Channel 5 launch video at 1800 hours plus photo shoot during the day
Spice Book Girl Power published - 2/4
2/4 - the girls have now sold 10m copies of Spice and should be worth £10m each by the end of the year
5/4 - fly to NY - to be on SNL on 12/4 (first live performance)
Ladbrook's even a Spice Girl will marry before 2000, 2-1, they will split before 2000.
the girls ambition is to sing Wannabe at Greenwich on 31/12/1999
13/4 to do SE Asia tour including Taiwan and Bali on 23/4 (in Bali, staying at Four Seasons at £2,00/night for holiday and 2 performances for prize winners. Got into trouble for performing haka, which should only be performed by men)
to sing in Manchester at the Prince's Trust concert on 9/5 (first live in UK)
reported on 28/4 on GMTV that the girls are going to sing the theme tune to a new 7 part ITV series of St Trinian's. The girls may also make guest appearences in the series.
the girls will appear at the 50th Cannes Film Festival which starts 7/5. Fragile Films are making the Spice Girls movie and will be unveiling plans over the weekend. The group will be performing on the Croisette for French TV (worldmedialive.com/cine/)
the girls will be appearing on American TV including Letterman over 14/15 May
the next single will be given away free with cans of Pepsi
The film will be called Spice:The Movie and will be made in London from June and released for Christmas with the new album. It will be about the 5 days before a live concert and will feature Richard E Grant as their manager. It is being co-written by Jennifer Saunders.
14/5 - Spice album tops charts in US as well as UK (first act to do this)
appeared on the internet 14/5 at 1930EST (15/5 - 0030 BST)
also appeared on Letterman singing live
returned to UK 22/5 after short break in Accapulco, Mexico
Won International Hit of the Year and best selling single in the UK for Wannabe at the Ivor Novello Awards on 29/5 (Mel B's 22nd birthday)
Filming for the movie should start week commencing 9/6 and should last for 6 weeks
appeared on BBC1 on 13/7 in special
Spice Girls will be performing at the MTV Video Awards in New York City hosted by comedian Chris Rock on September 4th - won Best Dance Video with Wannabe
Spice up your life, the single to be released on 4 October delayed by 1 week to allow more sales of Candle in the Wind 97, now to be released 13 Oct.
To appear on UK TV 4 times on 27 September plus once in the following week on GMTV
Album (Spice World) released 3 November and went straight to number 1, Video Live in Istanbul released at the beginning of December and Spice World the movie on 26 December 1997
appeared in India at a charity bash on 18 October plus South Africa 1st November
appeared on Talking Telephone Numbers 6 October
appeared on a balcony in Madrid, Spain promoting release of Spice World album on 7 October
Spice up your life went straight in at Number 1 in the UK charts on 19/10/97 making 5 number 1's in a row
Appeared in charity concert in India wearing sari's at an awards show organised by Channel V from Hong Kong
The Spice Girls have been picked to launch the 97 Poppy Appeal on 29/10/97
On 10/11/97, their manager Simon Fuller and 19 Management were sacked.
On 13/11/97, the Girls were booed off stage at a Spanish Musical Industry Awards ceremony after the organisers broke the contract and allowed photographers in to photograph the Girls while singing, causing a start delay.
On 14/11/97, rumours that the Girls were to split appeared in the media, including allegations that Emma was having an affair with Fuller causing a rift.
On 18/11/97, the Girls repeatedly denied all the stories and insisted they were staying together
30/11/97 - back in the UK, Smash Hit Poll Winners awards. won best group award but also worst group and worst single (Spice up your life). Geri won worst dressed person and least fanciable female. They won the worst single (Spice up your life), but the same single was second in the Best Single Category and the video to the song was second in the Video category. Geri was voted worst dressed female and least fanciable female but she was third in most fanciable category and forth in the Best Dressed Category. (In the same categories, Emma was second Most Fanciable, Mel B Fourth, Victoria, was Fifth and Mel C was Sixth. Victoria was the Second best dressed female, Emma was Third, Mel B was Fifth and Mel C was Sixth. Mel B was 3rd worst dressed female and also 3rd least fanciable female, with Mel C 4th and Victoria 5th. In another category, Mel B had 3rd best female haircut, Emma was 4th Geri 5th and Mel C 7th.
On 9th December, the Girls won 2 more awards at the American Billboard Magazine Awards for best New Act and Best Album (Spice).
On 21st December they did it again! Spice Girls got the Christmas number 1 in the UK with Too Much making their sixth number 1 in a row.
On 11th January, it was reported that the Girls were in Australia
reported that the Girls had cancelled a concert to be held in Toronto, Canada on 19/1/98 due to Mel C getting food poisoning
In the 1998 Guiness Book of Records, there are 7 records:
Biggest selling single by a female group - with Wannabe
First three singles over 1 million - first group ever to have their first 3 singles pass 1 million sales
Most successful run of No 1 hits - Only 4 are listed - due to the publication date - of course it's now up to 6
Most successful US debut by UK act- Say You'll be There entered the US chart at No 5 in May 1997
Longest No 1 album in the 1990s - Spice - topped the UK album chart in Nov 1996 and spent 15 weeks at No 1 to May 1997.
Fastest selling album - Spice reached No 1 in the charts of 14 countries and sold 12 million copies worldwide in 6 months, making it the fastest selling alum by a British act
Most successful debut album in the USA by UK act - Spice topped the US charts for 4 weeks as of June 1997 and became the only debut album by a wholly British group which has gone to No 1
The Spice album is also listed as the 9th best selling UK album on page 157.
23/1/98 - the Girls in Hollywood for the US release of Spiceworld: the Movie, dressed in identical white trouser suits and riding on the top of a Union Jack painted open top double decker bus
24/1/98 - back to the UK before flying to Dublin for rehearsals
26/1/98 - The Girls won all 3 categories they were entered for in the American Music Awards - Band, Duo or Group, Album (Spice), New Artist
9/1/98 - The Girls were only nominated for 1 award at the Brit Awards - Best Video - and they didn't win but were awarded a special award for overseas sales
24/2/98 Dublin for start of World Tour (2 nights) then Switzerland the following week
March 1998 - whilst in Milan on tour, the Girls went into Versace and spent £20,000 in 1 hours shopping
9/3/98 - Stop released in UK
15/3/98 - went to number 2 in the UK charts being kept off the top by a rap number, It's like that by Run DMC v Jason Nevins
15/3/98 - appeared in a Ruby Wax special filmed just before the Dublin performance.
TOUR DATES
Manchester Nynex UK 11-12 April 1998
Manchester Nynex UK 14-15 April 1998
London Wembley Arena UK 18-19 April 1998
London Wembley Arena UK 21-22 April 1998
London Wembley Arena UK 25-26 April 1998
London Wembley Arena UK 28-29 April 1998
Birmingham NEC UK 2-3 May 1998
For pictures and a report about the World Tour as seen by me in Birmingham on 2 May, click here
Birmingham NEC UK 5-6 May 1998
Birmingham NEC UK
12-13 May 1998 ParisPalais OmnisportsFrance
15-16 May 1998 Vienna Stadthalle Austria
19-20 May 1998 Stockholm Globe Arena Sweden
22-23 May 1998 Copenhagen Forum Denmark
25-26 May 1998 Helsinki Hartwall Arena Finland
28-29 May 1998 Oslo Spektrum Norway
6/15 Miami, FL Coral Sky Amphitheater
6/16 Orlando, FL Orlando
6/18 Atlanta, GA Lakewood Amphitheater
6/20 Charlotte, NC Blockbuster
6/21 Washington, DC Nissan Pavilion
6/24 Virginia Beach, VA GTE Amphitheater
6/25 Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Center
6/27 Philadelphia, PA Corestates
6/29 Long Island, NY Jones Beach Amphitheater
7/1 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
7/3 Hartford, CT Meadows Amphitheater
7/4 Darien Lakes, NY Darien Lakes
7/6 Montage, PA Montage Mountain
7/8 Boston, MA Great Woods
7/10 Montreal, QUE Molson Centre
7/11 Toronto, ONT Molson Amphitheater
7/14 Cleveland, OH Blossom
7/15 Pittsburgh, PA Starlake Amphitheater
7/18 Nashville, TN Starwood Amphitheater
7/20 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend
7/22 Columbus, OH Polaris Amphitheater
7/24 Indianapolis, IN Deer Creek
7/26 Detroit, MI Palace Theater
7/27 Chicago, IL World Amphitheater
7/29 Milwaukee, WI Marcus Amphitheater
7/31 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
8/2 St. Louis, MO Riverport
8/3 Kansas City, MO Sandstone
8/5 Denver, CO Fiddler's
8/8 Seattle, WA Tacoma Dome
8/9 Portland, OR Rosegarden
8/11 Vancouver, BC GM Place
8/13 San Jose, CA Shoreline Amphitheater
8/15 Los Angeles, CA Forum
8/17 Las Vegas, NV MGM
8/21 San Diego, CA Coors Amphitheater
8/22 Phoenix, AZ Desert Sky Pavilion
8/25 Houston, TX Woodlands
8/26 Dallas, TX Starplex
31 August 1998 New Jersey US
11, 12, 13 September 1998 Sheffield Don Valley Stadium UK
19-20 September 1998 LondonWembley Stadium UK
Pepsi are again releasing a Pepsi only CD, this time Generation Next Live with 18 ring pulls from special cans
The concert in New York was sold out in 13 minutes, leading to calls for an investigation into ticket rigging and touts.
The Spice Girls will be appearing on the UK Lottery programme on Wednesday, 27 May, in a 30 minute show, and will be singing 2 songs (I bet one will be Viva Forever). The Girls appeared on the first Wednesday Lottery programme.
Geri did not appear and the other Girls said she had a stomach bug.
It has been reported that Geri didn't go to Oslo, Norway with the other four girls after the lottery last Wednesday and missed both shows at Oslo because of a stomach bug. This has led to speculation in the British press that she has left the group as the first one to split. I don't believe a word of it, I know from personal experience that she was totally shattered at the end of the concert I saw, and we all commented on it. She hardly had the strength to walk down the steps off stage which was directly opposite where I was sitting. That now concludes the European leg of the tour and the Girls have two weeks off before hitting America. This will give her plenty of time to recover so you will see her in America, I'm sure.
On 31 May 1998 at 2:30pm, Geri's lawyer announced that she has left the Group, due to differences with the other Girls. A spokesman for the Girls said the other 4 were very sorry, wished Geri the best in what she did and said that the tour and the Spice Girls would go on.
On 15 June, the remaining 4, the Real Spice Girls started the tour as promised. Spice Goes ON!!!
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